Witch Hat Speaker Cable Questions

I now have Morgana interconnect between NDX2 and 282. Morgana XLR between Supercap and 300DR and Phantom speaker cable.
I’ve found all of them to be superior to the Naim original cables.
The Morgana cables took a couple of days to show an improvement and then improved further with time.
The Phantom was immediately better than the NACA5. I recently auditioned some upgrades with my dealer and the NACA5 sounded terrible compared to the Phantom I was used to. Fortunately he had the new Kudos cable which was similar but IMO not as good as the Phantom.

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@JohnF that is exactly my experience of Morgana and Phantom. In the context of my CB gear, the Phantom made a huge difference for the better over A5. Morgana was more subtle, and I would expect it to show a greater improvement in the more modern amps with larger bandwidth, still good though!

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The order arrived a short while ago, so as mentioned earlier that’s about 2½ weeks from order to arrival. Interestingly the sticker on the inner packaging suggests that the cable was built within a couple of days of the order. Maybe like the old joke about Post Office deliveries, half of the overall cost goes towards storage before they get round to delivering it.

It came by UPS - their initial email with tracking said delivery for the 22nd, a follow-up yesterday evening stated it was in a depot nearby and would be here on Monday (25th), but it arrived today anyway. Sounds like a bit of finger in the air estimating is going on.

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I received a response from Witch Hat yesterday, indicating that current turn around on orders is 3-4 weeks.

Similar story to my cable that turned up today. Ordered 2 weeks ago, scheduled for delivery by UPS for the 25th. Turned up an hour ago.
The sticker inside said a build date of the 12th, but that must have been the order date.
Was dispatched from near Reading. Is this where they are building cables at the moment?

Mine were also dispatched via UPS and via Reading. The cables ordered last year at Peak Lockdown around Easter-time were built and delivered to me by a WH guy who lives literally 5 minutes away; this time I was told that for reasons that escape me (email no longer available) this order would be built & dispatched from the factory. 2½ weeks is ok, maybe orders are ramping up now that we’re moving away from Christmas.

I guess there is no reason not to have an army of elves dotted around the country knocking these out? Don’t have to be produced at WH Central.

Just for the sake of balance.
I purchased WH Phantom cables about a year ago and found it difficult to discern any difference over my naca5. I persisted and held blind tests with a friend which revealed some slight differences and preferences, all in favour of naca5. I returned the phantoms.
Morgana interconnect made a fabulous improvement and that stayed.
I really wanted the Phantoms to be worthwhile. Didn’t want the hassle of returning them but I guess all our ears, systems, rooms are different.
I had to trust my ears. Even now reading all these reviews I doubt my own experience but that’s how it was.

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No i think you put it succinctly all our ears, rooms, systems are different…Morgana worked and so does Kudos Ks1 for me…loathe to trying anything else as it took a lot of trial and error to find what i like. I too after the third SL demo was starting to doubt myself and-if i would ever find something i liked.

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Thought I would update from Wednesday. So email as promised that UPS collected Thursday and would deliver Monday. At least they were on there way and although not till next week I was going to get my cables. Fast forward to 3pm and another email to say my parcel had been delivered. WTF! Anyway sure enough on the kitchen counter when I get home is a box. Opened up the outer to find a very smart dark blue box of some nicely packed understated looking cable. Printing phono plugs with amp and speaker is a very nice touch. So power amp off, disconnect NACA4 and installed Phantoms. Plugs are a nice positive snug fit too and the cable very supple. So far so good. Power back on and grab the iPad. Just a quick test as wifey was going on a zoom call but all good. Left them playing turned down low while I watch some crap on the tube of you then when shmbo was off her call we got some choones on.

So…well after 4 hrs I’m not disappointed in the slightest. Buckets of detail. Musical bass. Nice polish on the top end and everything is jiving nicely. Feet tapping and I don’t want to switch it off. I’ve been on a bit of mission with speaker cable since the PMC’s landed in Feb last year having tried a number of options but I think I’ve finally started get somewhere.

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Good to hear a quick-ish lead time for delivery on these. They should probably put a note on their website / social platforms stating this which will likely save responding to emails that ask that question.

I’m adding some to my new SN3 next month, hopefully by the time they arrive (end Feb) I’ll have 150+ hours burn-in on the amp to notice a difference vs. the QED Silver Anniversary XT I’m currently using.

I’m using phantom with my PMC’s and have been for the last two years and I’m happy with it. I’ve never tried naca5 though so can’t make that comparison.

I’ve used 2x4mtr Phantom cable since its release and I’m very happy with the performance. Recently purchased 2x6mtr Phantom for the main rig during covid took approx 3 weeks to arrive I don’t think in the current circumstances that’s bad service.

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Witch Hat seem to promote their Phantom’s for
Naim amp usage. Presumably they are more versatile than that. Anyone any experience with these cables and other amp’s?

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Yes, my phantoms connect a dynavector hx 1.2 to shahinian arcs. Much better than my previous A5. Phantom is better balanced, more transparent and neutral. Morgana leads really shine through phantom. They have a warmth and fullness that is complementary.

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Using Bryston 4B3 here. Very :grinning:

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A Linnie friend with Akurate 4200 swapped out his old K20 for Phantom. His main purpose was a new room layout needed something longer & less PVC cable looking, he liked the braid.
He was expecting something much the same as the K20 but he says the Phantom is more open & detailed.

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Just FYI…due to Brexit consequences, customers outside the UK should expect to pay an additional 25% of the Witch Hat purchase price at import into your country. For a pair of 2x5m Phantoms purchased at normal price, UPS wants to invoice me 100€ (on the continent) before delivery. This means that the Witch Hat 30 days return policy requires the customer to lose 25% of original purchase price PLUS return shipping costs.

Import costs are calculated on declared item value for import taxes and on item classification for Customs duties. In the case of express operators like UPS, the cost of transport is added to cost of merchandise to calculate import tax cost (VAT in Europe).

For non- UK Customers, this information should be accounted for in your own pré-purchase évaluations.

Brgds.

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Yes a lot of people are falling into this problem buying on Amazon right now, as this stuff comes from all over the place, so sending stuff back is a pain, but i did think that you could claim the vat and duty back, if you returned the goods, the only problem is thats a pain as it adds to more departments to try and get your money back from.
But from talking to the guys at witchhat, not much gets sent back, so you have a good chance that all will be good, just a shame that the price has gone up for you guys outside the UK

I’m pretty sure I read they ship without VAT outside UK meaning the price you see now is lower than before so it would be 5% more in your case than before Brexit. If you return a product you should be able to get the VAT refunded.

The 2x5m outside UK shows 333GBP. For UK it shows 400GBP. With 25% VAT you will pay 416GBP (UK have 20% VAT)